{"id":854,"date":"2019-01-22T03:00:05","date_gmt":"2019-01-22T10:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diannebarker.com\/?p=854"},"modified":"2019-01-21T08:31:58","modified_gmt":"2019-01-21T15:31:58","slug":"abraham-man-of-faith-friend-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diannebarker.com\/?p=854","title":{"rendered":"Abraham\u2014Man of Faith, Friend of God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Get out! <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God told Abraham to leave his home and go to a new place that he would show him. He put faith into action and went.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> Would you begin a journey having so few details? Let\u2019s look at the story in Genesis 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>The command\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNow\nthe Lord had said to Abram, Get out of your country, from your family, and from\nyour father\u2019s house, to a land that I will show you\u201d (v. 1).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>The promise\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\nwill make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and\nyou shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him\nwho curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed\u201d (v. 2-3).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>The response\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSo\nAbram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram\nwas seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran\u201d (v. 4).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>The promise enlarged\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThen\nthe Lord appeared to Abram and said, \u2018To your descendants I will give this land\u201d\n(v. 7a).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>The response\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAnd\nthere he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. And he moved from\nthere to the mountain east of Bethel\u2026There he built an altar to the Lord and called\non the name of the Lord. So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South\u201d\n(v. 7b-9).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>There\u2019s a lot to be\nsaid for obedience. God said \u201cGet out!\u201d and Abram went.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Along the way, he had some colossal mess-ups. Twice he tried\nto pass his beautiful wife Sarah off as his sister\u2014technically she was, the\ndaughter of his father but not his mother. And then there was that child he\nfathered with Sarah\u2019s maidservant Hagar\u2014at his wife\u2019s prompting! Just trying to\nhelp God out a bit. Abraham needed an heir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s easy for us to look at these decisions and think Abraham\ncould have done it better. But haven\u2019t you found that, even when we know we\u2019ve\nheard from God, following can be hard?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The name Abraham stands out in biblical history. He was\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>A man of faith\u2014he believed God.<\/li><li>A friend of God.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>He waited\ntwenty-five years for God to fulfill his promise. At 100 years of age, he and\nSarah (ninety) welcomed baby Isaac. A miracle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFor Abraham,\nhuman reason for hope being gone, hoped in faith that he should become the\nfather of many nations as he had been promised, So numberless shall your\ndescendants be\u201d (Romans 4:18 Amplified).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNo unbelief or distrust made him waver (doubtingly\nquestion) concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong and was empowered\nby faith as he gave praise and glory to God, Fully satisfied and assured that\nGod was able and mighty to keep His word and to do what He had promised\u201d\n(Romans 4:20-21 Amplified).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When circumstances give no reason to hope, will you believe\nGod? Will you listen to his quiet voice in your heart urging you to trust him,\ninstructing you to take a different path, though it makes no sense as far as\nhuman reasoning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Lord has a way of doing things so\nthere\u2019s no mistaking who did it!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s an average day for him\u2014pulling off another miracle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAnd so the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham\nbelieved in (adhered to, trusted in, and relied on) God, and this was accounted\nto him as righteousness (as conformity to God\u2019s will in thought and deed), and\nhe was called God\u2019s friend\u201d (James 2:23 Amplified).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In baffling circumstances, when we choose to trust and obey,\nimagine the scene in heaven. The Lord looks down, saying with a broad smile, \u201cA\nfew still believe in me. Human reason for hope being gone\u2014as good as dead\u2014they\ndo not waver through unbelief but hope in faith. They believe me\u2026trust me\u2026rely\non me\u2026remain steadfast to me. I\u2019m crediting it to them as right standing. They\nare my friends.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>May we be known as people of faith and friends of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Please tell me about a time you stepped out in faith, trusting God although you felt unsure about the destination. And I&#8217;d appreciate  your sharing this with your friends!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a9 Dianne Barker 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Scriptures from NKJV unless noted.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Get out! God told Abraham to leave his home and go to a new place that he would show him. He put faith into action and went. Would you begin a journey having so few details? Let\u2019s look at the story in Genesis 12. The command\u2026 \u201cNow the Lord had said to Abram, Get out [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[273,9,274,110,275,276],"class_list":["post-854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-abraham-man-of-faith","tag-dianne-barker","tag-friend-of-god","tag-hopeless","tag-obedience","tag-waiting"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.7.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Abraham--Man of Faith, Friend of God<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"God told Abraham to leave his home for a new place he&#039;d show him, and putting faith into action, he went. 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